BMU
I have 6 guitar audio tracks each loaded with Pod Farm which is simulating an amp, noise gate, reverb, compressor etc for each track. Also some EQ in Cubase on each track. Seems like a lot of processor load, yet no problem. But as soon as I "unfreeze" the virtual instrument track containing the drums - big problem. Static like an electric storm, sometimes to the extent of slowing the recording down.
Thanks goodness for the freeze track function in Cubase. As long as I freeze the drum track, things are ok. But I'm wondering, if the audio tracks with all that processing doesn't cause CPU overload, why should just one virtual instrument track loaded with Cubase's built-in HalionOne sampler and the built-in Cubase drum map?
aja
snap and crackle? Well if you hear pop, you need to stop eating so much rice crispies! ?
Renesongs
What you experiencing is audio dropout. I used to get the same problems with Sonar. Now I run Reaper same functionality as Sonar, Cubase or Pro Tools, less Gui, less Bloat therefore less audio drop out
sepheritoh
My bet would be your problem is either memory or disk streaming. If the CPU load does not bother, it must be something else.
Does that sampler stream DFD (direct from disk)? If so, try to find a place to switch it off. Are you running the samples from the same disk as your OS? The older SATA drives are not optimum for running audio. Maybe faster than IDE, but they tends to run everything through the same narrow bus.
Alternatively check the size of the library. Do you have enough memory. Maybe windows is making use of the virtual disk memory. That might cause a problem.
BMU
Sorry I should have clarified - it is the CPU load. The sampler isn't streaming from disc, I just checked (thanks for the hint) and there's plenty physical memory left.
So I know what's causing it - the CPU is loading up - but why? Why does one sampler track cause this, doing something that seems very simple compared to 6 audio guitar tracks each loaded with realtime calculations for amp sims, EQ, reverb etc?
AlanRatcliffe
I'm with Sepheritoh on this one - most likely disk/memory issues. Drum samplers use a lot of short samples which work best streamed from memory as they can cause a lot of hard drive seeking from disk which is much slower than streaming (I always defrag before installing a drum library to get all the samples as close to each other as possible on the drive). Installing
Of course, it could also be that the drum sampler itself is not very CPU efficient. If you archive all your tracks but the drums, do you still get the noise? Try increasing your latency a notch to free up some processor cycles. Also see if disabling the reverbs in POD Farm tracks helps. Rather use a single bus reverb for the majority of your tracks - nothing sucks more CPU than 'verb and you end up with a more cohesive mix with fewer 'verbs anyway.
andrewjbryson
In Cubase , check your "VST performance" , under options.
This will display (as a %) your CPU load used by Cubase.
Anything above 70% is dangerous and will cause problems.
Some tricks you can use to lessen the load:
1) Use group tracks. Example : instead of adding 4 guitar tracks, each with a compressor and delay, rather
add 1 stereo group track with a compressor and delay. Then send your 4 audio tracks to this group track .
When clicking on the audio track, look at your track inspector, under output, select , Group 1.
You are now effectively saving 75 % CPU power(for those group of instruments) by using 1 channel with effects instead of 4.
2) Use send effects instead of insert effects. Same principle as the above example.
Instead of adding many reverbs on different channels/tracks, rather add 1 Stereo FX Reverb (and set your FX level to 100%/ Full ),
now for each channel that requires reverb, you simply send your master reverb channel to it (as a percentage , example 15 %).
Of course this limits your reverb type (Room, Hall, Plate) , however its nice to have a universal "room sound" thus all the instruments sound
as if they were recorded in the same "room" .
3) Basic windows/operating system management - clean up your Desktop/ make sure you are not running to many apps in the background.
(MS Office/ Visual Studio / Norton Anti virus, etc.). This all chows your RAM/ Virtual memory which is so essential in your DAW.
Goto RUN -> then type "msconfig". -> Enter.
This is a utility that allows you to disable applications on the startup, and thus it won't load up into the memory.
Great for speeding up your P.C.
4) Sound Card issues/ drivers. Make sure you are running the most recent version for your operating system.
Do a google search, try the vendor website. ASIO4All is another driver to consider, if all else fails.
Hope some of the above helps.
BMU
Thanks guys. I started using group tracks, basically driven by convenience (only need to EQ all the rhythm guitar tracks once, etc.) but didn't think to maximize their potential in the way described. Very cool. Ditto with send effects.
The sampler has an "efficiency" slider which is currently on its highest quality setting, i.e. maximum no. of voices available. It seems to be using a hell of a lot of "voices" for just a bass drum...drum beat doesn't cut off when the next one starts and each requires a separate voice? Havoc when the 180 bpm double bass kicks in. I'll play with that too.
BMU
Ok, the bass drum was the main culprit. The sampler has something called "DCA Release" - the time the sample rings on after being triggered. For the bass drum this can be almost zero, as opposed to say a cymbal which does need to ring on. Reducing from 0.9s to 0.2s made a major difference. I already had the bass drum on its own dedicated track, separate from the rest of the drums, so this is a simple fix.
Anyway I knew there was something like that and asking questions here would get me closer to the answer, so thanks again for the responses. Doesn't fix the problem 100% but makes it workable. I can always freeze tracks before final mixdown.
